Island Press Field Notes

The access issue touches all of us. From the cancer patient wanting to read up on her disease to the community organizers whose groundwater is tainted with solvents, the seaside city planner wanting the latest climate change models, and the high school student looking up at the stars.

The view of the University of Montana campus from the nearby Mt. Sentinel.

Observation and Ecology author Rafe Sagarin discusses art and the environment with poet Eric Magrane from the University of Arizona. Eric Magrane: Rafe, you write and speak about observation, most pointedly in your bookObservation and Ecology, with Aníbal Pauchard. I’d like to discuss the way that observation interacts as a hinge between science—and particularly environmental science—as a way of seeing and understanding the world, and art as a way of seeing.

This week's pick is from Assistant Editor, Erin Johnson.